Nightmare Rifts - An indepth Guide to reach stage 300

Hello folks!

Since i am going to hit NM V Master tomorrow id like to share my experiences so far in open world and instanced NMR's and how to succes in getting above stage 100 and way beyond that.

I do know that theres a guide on riftgrate.com Dem Hyperlinks that explains most of the mechanics like power ups(further called orbs) and stuff so this guide focuses on raidsetups, specs and mostly how do handle stages.

Raidsetup:

1 Tank(pulls preferred) -
- ofc its all about keeping aggro, you can manage the adds in every stage in relation of orb usage (obliteration and crystal f.e.) way better if one person can control the overall position of the adds,
- if the tank can purge and cleanse the better his function gets in the raid in terms of replacing a full dps(explaining later)
-i recommend full dps gear since dps of every person gets more important in the later stages

1 Grp heal (Warden or Liberator or Chloro) -
- in the early stages the grp healer wont do anything important since the dmg taken is very low but gets crucial in later stages with bosses sub 1 min
- healer is going to be responsible for unity orb
- if you can manage dmg taken even in later stages you will get to higher stages if you replace him with a full dps

1 Bard/Oracle + 1 Harbchon/Stormchon -

-obviously you get better results in a full raid since you you compensate more players in terms of dps, because the more players> supports are going to exceed players limits in terms of dps than a 10 man or 5 man raid.
- ofc the rifts scale with players, however you seem to get the best results in terms of scaling with exactly 20 players, f.e. if you only have 5 ppl and one dies, you are missing 20% dps if all were full dps, but if one dies in a 20 man raid you only lose about 5% dps

the rest of the team - DPS -

Mage: Dominator/Stormcaller for AOE/ST-NO PYRO (no cd's every second stage)
Rogue: Bladedancer or Nightblade for AOE/ST or Ranger for range ST
Cleric: Cabbalist for AOE/Utility or Inquisitor for ST
Warrior: Obviously Tempest with Power Variation Mastery

- So this is where i am still not 100% sure
-I tried a couple of methods in terms of reaching higher stages depening on ST and AOE DMG and here is my verdict:

The best spec for every DPS is a 2- 3 target cleave spec with enough ST Dps to manage the bosses under 1 minute, but here is the catch:

-it cant be melee, since bosses with refraction orb mechanics f.e. will oneshot you if you dont react fast enough and bosses with charge abilities will outrange you more than once, so range is preferred
-ofc if you are able to manage and like it to change the spec every stage go ahead but its a dps lose imo

F.e. Bladedancer as a rogue seems to be the best choice for NMR's but will get worse on higher stages on bosses, so Nightblade seems to be the better choice

However,
the trick is that you setup your raid to have very high sustained ST DPS and ENOUGH AOE dps to handle the 4+ add stages without using an orb. So bladedancer will be the best spec if the other classes handle the ST on bosses f.e.

Try experimenting and add some comments if you have better ideas to reach stage 150+ on NM V.

Boss and Add-Mechanics:

So this is the most important part and i guess you know why!

Adds:

Invokers, Earthcallers etc:

- big pulsing yellow bubble, every add in this bubble will get healed after 4 seconds, so assign ppl with purge or let the archon mass-purge the whole grp, on stage 100+ you will fail if you cant handle this mechanic

Tormenters, Husks etc:

-these are the typical shield mobs with big red AOE zones that often cause open world NM's to fail, focus these bastards first in open world

-placeholder- tree like adds:

big pulsing purple bubble, fears after 4 seconds, let the archon mass purge them if there are more than 2, mass cleanse if you fail

Refraction Orb Bosses:

This are the most mean guys out there, one shotting the raid with big slow orbs if you dont react fast
best strategy so far is to let the raid go on max range spreading around the boss and if he casts orbs, run even further out of the raid, there is also another cast called pulsing orb that is less dangerous because the orbs spawn inside the boss and not from players

Positive-Negative Bosses:

-you ALL know that these guys suck but still its quite easy if you figured out

-you have to be in the zone for at least 1 second before the buff applies
-the positive zone are mostly the furthest away

>when you see the zones spawn always run to the white zone first or between a white and a purple zone and then you can decide if you run back to negative or continue to positive
>if you cant manage it in time, use an absorb shield(the dmg from the mechanic is 100% of your health so a shield WILL save you, dmg reduction wont)
>you can also use oracle defend the fallen or bards mass shield or any mass shield for 20 ppl to bypass the mechanic
> on NM V remember to immediately leave the zone because of nightmare torrent

So these are the only 2 bosses that can screw up your attempts, the rest of the bosses are fairly easy and the mechanics are obvious too but i will add them later on

Stage-Handling:

Since one orb spawns after every stage and later on after every minute it is recommend to use an orb every stage no matter what until stage 60 for phase streak 4 bonus.

Make sure you have enough nightmare energy and ppl to build up the power up pillars.

Make sure to use consumables on CD like tablets, feast, semblances etc.

If you want to reach stage 300 you will need to substitute the tank and healer with semblance's V otherwise you wont meet the dps check and also certainly you need full raid equip and use the power ups wisely.

Power Ups(Orb) usage:

All Orbs do a certain percent of dmg to adds and bosses, f.e. sacrifice will always do 50% of the enemy's max HP.

Transition:
All Orbs have a passive and an active ability that should be used as a transition, f.e. unity's passive can be used as a healer when you have 15 seconds left on the stage and the active ability can be used on the next stage.

Assign one DPS to dmg the crystal orb since you get the most dmg if you use the full duration of its existence and kill the crystal in the next stage.

Use Chaos in one stage and buff a player in the next stage.

Always try to "waste orbs" like grip and surge on stages where you certainly wont need an orb to pass to make space for a better orb.

If you run low on orbs(max. 4) try to stall the stage as long as possible to regain orbs. f.e. 12 min bosses are immune to orbs anyway so kill it when you have reached the maximum amount of orbs.

Try not to save orbs for too long since they seem to despawn after some minutes. so always go for first in, first out technic if possible.

Try to clear the 4+ add stages without orbs.

Last words: I am going to update this guide with more bosses and details because i didnt write down all of them by now.

the highest on NM V EU is 138 afaik.but this guide isnt called how to reach 300 in NMV its called how to reach 300...its still in theory the best way to achieve 300 in NMV since in that way we achieved 300 in NM I and II. so its only a matter of gear^^

Highest nmr5 is 121, done by us. The way we did it was pretty close to what you suggest in your guide. The crucial point seems to be this: "ENOUGH AOE dps to handle the 4+ add stages without using an orb". When you reach around stage 120, the 4 monster phases are not that easy at all, and I think we were using powerups on them aswell at that point. The 2 monster phases are tricky but even on them some aoe specs can do quite well if you just pull the monsters together quickly. Ofcourse, if you get too much aoe dps, you might end up in a place where you have to use multiple powerups to get rid of bosses..

-you ALL know that these guys suck but still its quite easy if you figured out

-you have to be in the zone for at least 1 second before the buff applies
-the positive zone are mostly the furthest away

>when you see the zones spawn always run to the white zone first or between a white and a purple zone and then you can decide if you run back to negative or continue to positive
>if you cant manage it in time, use an absorb shield(the dmg from the mechanic is 100% of your health so a shield WILL save you, dmg reduction wont)
>you can also use oracle defend the fallen or bards mass shield or any mass shield for 20 ppl to bypass the mechanic
> on NM V remember to immediately leave the zone because of nightmare torrent

Easier and more reliable way to do it is pull the Positive/Negative boss to edge of the Rift, and break Line of Sight on the Nighmare Hands/Faces - whatever is around as a part of scenery. It's more reliable than bubbles.

Mage: Dominator/Stormcaller for AOE/ST-NO PYRO (no cd's every second stage)

I guess you main is mage?Or no?Because at this point you really wrong.Pyro is the best spec for NM rifts among all classes in game.In full expert gear with lvl 3 essenses sigil pyro mage can burst 85-90k sustain dps on 30-50 sec boss/2 mobs phases.Without any bursts(yes by any i mean HW/Fulminate/FV/Fusillade) pyro can still do 50-60k by standart rotation+ procs).AOE dps is not the best but still decent 80-90k on 4-5 mobs.it's more than enough when there is BD-rogues,Tempests,Inquisitors.

And yes even if u will use few mages in Domi/SC or another several classes in Specific AOE specs you will fail NM 4 or 5 really quick.Because most wipes on later phases 100+ is always on Boss phases or 2/3 mobs phases.

There's 2 required at 60+ phase and even 3 on 100+ phase cos there will be insane amount of dmg that no one healer can handle alone.Warden and Chloro have fast mana burn on longer later phases so liberator is best choice for earlys.Also chloro dont have burst heal that required on some phases.

Only trolling is you here.With a such trololo advices in this silly guide.Wanna see how you will pass 100+ phase on NM V with raid of domi's and Sc's and 1 raid healer.Make a vid pls.I know u can do it easy because you have lots vid's of pvp where you killing random pugs on WF with premade like a pigeon crusher king.But this guide is a thing of another category.

The only thing i can't understand is how a person like you who not even reached 100 phase on NM V can post such trololo guides like this.